What Does 2024 Portend for China and US?

Philadelphia holds its unique Holiday Parade, celebrating winter's holidays, including Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year, and Chinese New Year, on the evening of Dec. 2, 2023. William Huang/The Epoch Times

Commentary

What will happen in 2024? The superstitious frequently look to mystical signs and attributes associated with the zodiac for answers.

The zodiac is defined in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary as “an imaginary band in the heavens centered on the ecliptic that encompasses the apparent paths of all the planets and is divided into 12 constellations or signs each taken for astrological purposes to extend 30 degrees of longitude.” The zodiac was determined through observation of the star constellations that repeated each year throughout the solar year. The 12-star constellations represent signs connected to myth and legend—Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces—and their astrological attributes correspond to the 12 months in the Western zodiac.

The Chinese zodiac uses animal signs and their attributes to differentiate a repeating 12-year cycle over the centuries. The superstitions associated with both the Western and Chinese attributes were born over 2,000 years ago (not to mention the pseudo-science of astrology that spawned fortune-tellers who do a brisk business predicting the future based on astrological signs and other factors).

What do the signs hold for 2024? What do the stars say?

Let’s take a look.

The Chinese Zodiac (Sheng Xiao–生肖)

According to Chinese New Year, the zodiac animals during the 12-year cycle include the “Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig.” The zodiac symbols were probably originally derived from ancient animal worship and have become integrated into Chinese philosophy, culture, and superstition over the years.

2023 was the year of the Rabbit. Chinese superstition holds that “the rabbit is a tame creature representing hope and life for a long time. It is tender and lovely,” according to Travel China Guide.

Coincidentally or not, Chinese leader Xi Jinping exuded the essence of “hope and life” in various soothing pronouncements and themes throughout 2023.

From China Daily in June: “The need to continue to boost cultural prosperity [to] make China a leading country in culture.”

From Global Times in November: “China’s unswerving commitment to further opening up.”

From China Daily in November: “Only through mutual learning can different civilizations achieve common progress.”

And perhaps the most frequently repeated cliché throughout the year, with an example from China Daily in December: “Promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.”

Enter the Year of the Dragon

On Feb. 10, the Rabbit transitions to the Year of the Dragon. From The Chinese Zodiac, “The Dragon is a powerful and auspicious creature in Chinese mythology, representing courage, creativity, and innovation.” The Chinese Zodiac article further states that dragon people “are not afraid to pursue their dreams and goals.” Additional attributes listed in Parade include “wisdom, authority, prosperity, health, and protection.”

Undoubtedly, Xi ascribes these attributes to himself, and his pronouncements in the run-up to the Year of the Dragon should give the world pause for concern, particularly as it relates to his “dreams and goals.” One of those is his oft-stated intention that Taiwan be “reunified” with mainland communist China—on his terms, which included the threat of a military invasion.

The People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA’s) ratcheting up of tensions in the Taiwan Strait at the direction of Xi is a case in point. In an article in The Diplomat on Dec. 6, Chieh-Ting Yeh, the director of the US Taiwan Watch think tank, noted that “China [is] scrambling fighter jets near Taiwan on an almost daily basis” to intimidate and influence Taiwanese voters before the presidential election on Jan. 13.

This pressure is dragon-like and of a piece with Xi’s other recent statements.

During their meeting on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in San Francisco in November, Xi told President Joe Biden that Beijing plans to “reunify” Taiwan with mainland China, but the timing has not yet been determined.

On Dec. 29, a spokesman from China’s Ministry of National Defense conveyed Xi’s harsh message to the Philippines: “China will not turn a blind eye toward the Philippines’ repeated provocations and harassment.” Never mind that China is violating international agreements, including the 2016 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) decision that granted maritime jurisdiction of the disputed area in the South China Sea to the Philippines.

Also on Dec. 29, Reuters reported that Xi “urged Chinese ambassadors to forge a ‘diplomatic iron army’ loyal to the Communist Party, reviving the abrasive ‘Wolf Warrior’ rhetoric propagated by some diplomats as a sign of China’s increasingly assertive foreign policy.”

Furthermore, Xi extended his hand to Kim Jong Un on New Year’s Day by designating 2024 as the “China-DPRK Friendship Year.” That amounts to Xi’s tacit approval of Kim’s continuing “test launches” of ballistic missiles intended to intimidate South Korea, Japan, and the United States.

Is Xi attempting to capitalize on the Chinese people’s reverence for the dragon in his pursuit of unification with Taiwan, a return to Mao Zedong’s “continuous revolution,” and ultimately world hegemony?

The US in 2024

2024 also portends danger, as the United States descends into the darkness of authoritarianism and the attendant loss of constitutional liberties. In April, the astrological website Mastering the Zodiac predicted that the planet Pluto will visually return to the night sky in February, July, and December 2024, appearing in the Capricorn constellation, which is where Pluto appeared at the time of the American Revolution. With Pluto’s return signifying a “transformational event” similar to the nation’s birth, the website eerily predicted that the United States “will likely undergo significant changes related to its political, economic, and social systems.”

That surely seems like what has been ongoing in the United States this past year with the increasing First Amendment infringements by the federal government, the weaponizing of federal bureaucracies against U.S. citizens for political reasons, and the sacrificing of traditional American culture on the cultural Marxist altars of LGBT, DEI, and climate alarmism. And get ready for the possible return of mask mandates with the government making medical decisions for individuals. In December, CDC Director Mandy Cohen advised people to “mask up” so as “to protect themselves against respiratory illnesses.”

The Daily Caller noted on Dec. 31 that Democrat-run states “are instituting a host of left-wing laws at the beginning of 2024 targeting several cultural and political issues” that will curtail the freedoms, liberties, and choices made by the citizens of their states.

What else can be expected in the run-up to the November elections?

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.